This is a guest post from Anja Wellen, bassist and writer over at Bas Gitaar Starter, a bass guitar blog and learning resource.
How useful is it to record band rehearsals?
Very useful.
Is it more useful for the beginner than for the experienced bass player?
Yes it is, because a beginner can learn from it even more.
It’s nice to hear yourself play?
It certainly can be.
What is there to like about hearing yourself play?
Quite a bit, actually.
Recording yourself, recording your own music and your band practices is an enlightening experience.
By being able to hear yourself played back, you instantly get an objective listen of how others hear your music.
Not enough musicians do this. Its shame because taking some time out to set up some pieces of equipment to record and hear your own music is one of the most effective ways to improve your playing and your own sense of musicianship.
Why You Hate To Record Yourself
I have heard advanced musicians say they hate hearing themselves play.
They comment that their tone is off, their timing isn’t up to snuff or they just generally don’t like hearing themselves played back. They cringe at the sound of their own playing and the realization that that is in fact what they really sound like. It’s a startling realization.
The most interesting component to all this is the psychology behind it. The uneasiness is a common phenomenon. It’s the act of us feeling out of sync with our idealization and what reality really is. Ever hear a recording of yourself speak and find yourself asking, “is that what I really sound like?” The psychology is the same.
Beginner Bass Players: Record Your Own Music
Before you reel back and tell yourself “why should I?” and list off a bunch of reasons why you don’t want to, don’t feel like it or can’t consider the following.
You can only learn from the experience. Let me explain.
If you’re a beginner, you’re likely to make mistakes.
Playing on the wrong string, playing a song below or above it’s intended tempo, goof up your timing – whatever the reason for your mistakes, the bigger picture is that you’re learning.
But as those mistakes fly by, ask yourself: how much are you really learning from those mistakes. When you take some time out to record some – maybe not all – of your practice sessions and play them back to yourself, you’re gaining that objective view of your learning.
You’re now separating yourself from your biases and your mental idealization of your playing and hearing what you actually sound like. It’s that realization compounded with other aspects like a consistent practice routine [link] that help to expedite musical development.
Moreover, you’re playing for yourself. Feelings of self-consciousness shouldn’t exist because there’s really none you’re performing for except yourself.
This is your chance to be your own toughest critic without anyone else being your toughest critic.
Moreover, you’re can learn about your playing style and technique.
Recording A Band Versus Recording Yourself
When you are playing with a band you’re literally IN the music.
Your brain and ears are occupied with the music in a very different way than when you’re playing by yourself and you’re the only one listening to you.
When you play and record with a band, you’re hearing a ‘big musical picture’ when you play.
While your attention is divided to your own playing, you’re also hearing what other people are playing as it’s being performed to you in real time.
In a way, you’re a recorder for someone else, able to provide honest feedback on their individual playing as well as the overall sound of the band.
Moreover, you become more in tune to your own sounds as they fit in the big picture and how to make the correct adjustments.
Then you can adjust the amplifier or the sound on your guitar and you can hear right away if you like those adjustments. You also hear immediately whether you practiced enough to filter out the mistakes you made last time. You can also hear if this type of strings on your guitar make a difference. You hear things that have to do with how you fit into the sound of your band.
You also hear yourself do things that you did not know you could do.
Can you also use it as a band? Yes actually. A band as a whole can get the same benefits that you can get as an individual musician.
You can also make your family and friends crazy with having to listen to you. Nothing wrong with a little bragging nor with using your best takes with one band to find another band.
Recording Gear For You and Your Band
Recordings are not only a valuable learning experience and time for effective self correction, but they can also be a lesson in sound editing on a very small, individual but meaningful scale.
From my own experience, I can say that I find myself sounding better because of recording and that I had to polish myself.
The recordings help you do that.
I use the recordings to practice at home. I can practice with my own band. It gives you the particular vibe that set of people has even if you play covers. If you are a beginner that saves a lot of time for your band members.
Practicing at home does that.
I sometimes record them playing without bass.
Then I have a track without bass. The advantage is you can try out any bass line without hearing the one you already played there.
Since you’ve made it this far in the article, you’re likely interested in some recording technology.
While there are many recorders out on the market right now, a simple voice recorder or your mobile phone will not really give a good result.
You need an audio recorder. If you have lots of money, go ahead and buy something expensive. You can have half a studio these days in one device.
I use a Zoom H1 recorder for my personal bass recordings which cost around one hundred euro. It’s small and handy. Fits in your gigbag. What they say on the site is true. It records a clear and full sound that has depth. If your rehearsal space has bad acoustics, no sound recorder that can do anything about it.
One tip a guitarist gave me, is that the batteries you can put in it (just the normal ones) run out fast. Buy it with an accesory kit that has a network adapter. Or buy the network adapter only.
The accessory kit apart from the network adapter has a tripod, a handle and a wind-breaker cap for a little more. That’s an added value. There are other recorders as said. However, this is what I can describe from my own experience.
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